Viewing: work

It’s been a bit since I posted, mostly because my dear husband has had some health issues, which led to his early retirement, which led to us moving from the island of Alameda to the beautiful redwood forest of Sonoma County. He gets to enjoy baseball and all of his favorite sports programs as well as breathe in the fresh air and peaceful surroundings. I get to write on the deck outside, with sky and trees as my ceiling and…

National Novel Writing Month: NaNoWriMo. It’s a thing. I’ve participated for several years now, winning a couple of times (winning means writing 50,000 words of dubious merit in 30 days) or not winning sometimes. Since I started writing my “Hot Off the Press” Veronika Layne mystery series, I have found NaNoWriMo to be an excellent way to draft a new book in the series. I’m writing my third Veronika story now, after just launching the second book at an epic…

I’m heading south and east this week to dig into some family history, the in-person research I can do only in person in Alabama. I’ll be staying in Jasper, with forays into Birmingham and down to Alexander City and Hackneyville. Part of the research will be digging into libraries and part will be driving around to see the environs where my forebears were slaveholders. I’ve found what I could find on Ancestry.com and at my local library; I have looked through…

Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart. –William Wordsworth When I sit to write my blog, I am like the slot machine that comes up with one lemon, one X and one banana peel. It takes a few pulls to get gold. As I sat late this Sunday evening to write the elusive *something* I wanted to write, I saw the clipped-out graphic with those words from the aptly named Wordsworth. So, to follow my own instructions, here…

I was a special guest at an event last week, the 30th anniversary celebration for our local adult literacy program. The non-profit Alameda Reads teaches immigrants and adult learners how to read and write in English. As part of the celebration, several of the participants read a short piece about an event in their lives. For some, it was the first piece of creative writing they had ever done. It was an honor to hear them reading, in front of…